We're fans of online budgeting tools, but using a good, old-fashioned spreadsheet can work just as well. Go Banking Rates illustrates the Excel formulas that can help you budget.

They explain there are 53 different financial functions in Excel for spreadsheets. Using all of them can get confusing, so they put together a list of the most helpful ones. Here are two of my favorites:

The Payment Function =PMT(rate, nper, pv, [fv], [type])

According to Bob Flisser, vice president of Software School, Inc., "the most important function is the payment function … [which] calculates how much you'll pay every month when paying back a loan (auto loan, mortgage, anything)."

This conditional function helps individuals determine if their financial situations entitle them to tax deductions or credit. The earned-income tax credit, for example, has variable income tax credits for different filers' income levels.

By comparing one or more values against a static value, individuals using the appropriate income threshold can determine if they qualify for the tax credit.

Advertisement

Of course, there are some Excel masters who may already be familiar with these, but if you're just starting out, or if you've never really checked out their budgeting formulas, it's worth a look. Click on the full post for more formulas.